Kellyanne Conway Casually Sits, and Etiquette Arbiters Take a Stand

Image

Kellyanne Conway checked her phone on the couch while President Trump invited officials from historically black colleges and universities to join him in the Oval Office on Monday.CreditStephen Crowley/The New York Times

During President Trump’s meeting with dozens of leaders of historically black universities on Monday, Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, made herself at home in the Oval Office. She hopped onto a couch, sat back on her heels and tapped on her phone.

This impromptu manner of sitting is common in living rooms across America, but not in the Oval Office. And there are more important things underway in the White House: an ambitious budget, health care (it’s complicated!) and a presidential address to Congress on Tuesday. But Ms. Conway’s posture was all the kindling a hair-triggered public needed to ignite a battle over decorum.

For those watching closely — and millions are — this seemed like the latest flouting of protocol by an administration that has showed a penchant for spontaneity and a willingness to ignore unwritten rules of White House life. When Mr. Trump invited Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, into the Oval Office in early February, his daughter Ivanka, normally considered the most polished member of the family, was criticized for taking an impromptu seat at her father’s desk. On the other end of the spectrum, Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, has been targeted for dressing too casually. And the first lady does not yet live in Washington.

But Ms. Conway’s willingness to sit casually on a couch seemed a step too far. To Pamela Eyring, president of the Protocol School of Washington, whose programs focus on etiquette, it just looked a lot like a “rookie protocol mistake.”

Kellyanne Conway checks her phone after taking a photo of President Donald Trump and leaders of black universities, colleges in Oval Office pic.twitter.com/MgVhCoJFuC

Ms. Eyring said the photos of Ms. Conway probably negated whatever message of unity Mr. Trump was trying to project.

“The whole media opportunity to show the good will and the collaboration showing what the president is trying to do is gone now,” Ms. Eyring said. “Let the media take the shot instead of you trying to stand on furniture.”

On Twitter, people categorized the episode as an outrage, an opportunity for laughs or an overblown controversy.

“Liberals are losing their mind because Kellyanne Conway is kneeling on a couch and ‘not treating furniture with respect,’” wrote Jack Murphy, who posts extensively on Twitter about the president. He then shared nine photos of former President Barack Obama with his feet propped up on desks and chairs in the White House.

Liberals are losing their mind because Kellyanne Conway is kneeling on a couch and "not treating furniture with respect."

Others said the faux pas was not about the desecration of furniture. Instead, they felt that Ms. Conway, who serves a president who has been known to make racially charged or tone-deaf statements, had shown disrespect while she was among dozens of black leaders.

“Now, you can’t expect us to take this ‘meeting’ seriously when this is the setting,” wrote DeRay Mckesson, a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement.

The initial purpose of the meeting — one meant to build relationships between the Trump administration and historically black colleges — was quickly overshadowed by photos of Ms. Conway, which were quickly chopped up and repurposed as memes. (A statement from Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, calling these schools “pioneers when it comes to school choice,” on the other hand, received plenty of attention.)

In this hyper-polarized social media environment, while photos are perfect fodder for jokes and nuance-free arguments, pictures don’t always tell the whole truth. In the moment, Ms. Conway was observing a hastily arranged photo op where dozens of people were waved into the office by Omarosa Manigault, the director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison, according to Stephen Crowley, a New York Times photographer who was in the room.

“It was just chaos as they were bringing in dozens of people,” Mr. Crowley said. “I didn’t even notice Kellyanne, it was just so chaotic.”

Mr. Crowley added that, in the moment, Ms. Conway’s movements suggested that she was making an effort to duck out of the way of pool photographers.

Image

Kellyanne Conway taking a photo of President Trump and leaders of historically black universities and colleges in the Oval Office.CreditBrendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Hope Hicks, a White House spokeswoman, did not respond to a request for comment. But on Tuesday evening, Ms. Conway addressed the photos during an interview with Lou Dobbs on the Fox Business Network. “I was asked to take a certain angle and was doing exactly that. I certainly meant no disrespect,” Ms. Conway said. “I didn’t mean to have my feet on the couch.”

Ms. Eyring, of the protocol school, suggested that it would be a lesson learned for the future.